Mackenzie Smith is taking on a new responsibility with the Chattanooga Lady Red Wolves this season.
The role — captain — is not unfamiliar to Smith, who had a similar title with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga soccer program this past season. But obviously, the teams are different.
The Lady Red Wolves missed out on the USL W League playoffs by just one point last year, finishing with 24 points to South Georgia Tormenta FC's 25. From that Chattanooga team, three of the top six goal scorers are gone, furthering the need for new production this year.
Smith was the team's second-leading scorer in 2022, and she's a captain this year along with Jess Shepherd-Jordan. So it was fitting that when the team started slow in its season opener against Tennessee SC on Sunday night, those two would be the combination to get the hosts on track with a goal right before the end of the first half.
The Lady Red Wolves would put two more on the board in a 3-1 win at CHI Memorial Stadium in East Ridge.
"It was an interesting transition from going to one of the new kids to being one of the people that had been on the team the longest, but I have a lot of people that I've been able to look up to," Smith said while signaling in the direction of Shepherd-Jordan. "She's been an incredible role model, so she's really been able to help me transition into that role and show me what it means, plus I was lucky to be captain at UTC, so part of those fundamentals have been coming into it.
"It's a different thing, but it's an honor and the girls are always so great about it. It's a learning process for me, but with a good coach and another captain with me, it's really easy."
To that point, Smith has both.
Luke Winter is entering his third season as head coach and helped the club transition into the USL. Coaching a younger team is a bit different for him, with veteran players such as former Soddy-Daisy standout Summer Hernandez and Hannah Tillett, who signed a contract in Iceland this offseason, gone, and some of that youth showed in Sunday's slow start. But the team got on a roll after the Smith goal in the final moments of the first half, and Grace Morris and Jayla Gillespie scored in the second half for a nice cushion.
"We're still figuring out what this team is going to be," Winter said. "It's certainly a newer group, a younger group than what we've had, but the sense is excitement, and I think it's a lot of girls who want to prove themselves, which is a good thing. I think we saw some nerves early, we tried to reiterate it in the final team talk and it didn't quite happen, and then it kind of hit rock bottom there for five minutes.
"And the only way is up, and I thought as the first half went on, we got better and better, and then the second half, we were worthy winners."
The Lady Red Wolves are home Thursday against South Carolina United, then have two more home matches the following week before hitting the road for the first time on May 29.
"There are girls on our team that stepped on this field for the first time," Winter said. "We've got some challenges ahead, but we like a challenge. We have to make sure we start off well."
Added Smith: "We're not here to tie games. We're here to win, and we're here to go to the championship and win the championship. We were really hurt last year to lose by just a point, and that's not what we want to repeat this year, so from the get-go, we want to be 100% all the way through."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.